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20 Writing Tips from Fiction Authors

20 Writing Tips from Fiction Authors

Tip1: "My first rule was given to me by TH White, author of The Sword in the Stone and other Arthurian fantasies and was: Read. Read everything you can lay hands on. I always advise people who want to write a fantasy or science fiction or romance to stop reading everything in those genres and start reading everything else from Bunyan to Byatt." — Michael MoorcockTip 2: "Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you." — Zadie SmithTip 3: "Introduce your main characters and themes in the first third of your novel. If you are writing a plot-driven genre novel make sure all your major themes/plot elements are introduced in the first third, which you can call the introduction. Develop your themes and characters in your second third, the development. Resolve your themes, mysteries and so on in the final third, the resolution." — Michael MoorcockTip 4: "In the planning stage of a book, don't plan the ending. It has to be earned by all that will go before it." — Rose TremainTip 5: "Always carry a note-book. And I mean always. The short-term memory only retains information for three minutes; unless it is committed to paper you can lose an idea for ever." — Will SelfTip 6: "It's doubtful that anyone with an internet connection at his workplace is writing good fiction." — Jonathan Franzen
"Work on a computer that is disconnected from the internet." — Zadie SmithTip 7: "Interesting verbs are seldom very interesting." — Jonathan FranzenTip 8: "Read it aloud to yourself because that's the only way to be sure the rhythms of the sentences are OK (prose rhythms are too complex and subtle to be thought out—they can be got right only by ear)." — Diana AthillTip 9: "Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass." – Anton ChekhovTip 10: "Listen to the criticisms and preferences of your trusted 'first readers.'" — Rose TremainTip 11: "Fiction that isn't an author's personal adventure into the frightening or the unknown isn't worth writing for anything but money." — Jonathan FranzenTip 12: "Don't panic. Midway through writing a novel, I have regularly experienced moments of bowel-curdling terror, as I contemplate the drivel on the screen before me and see beyond it, in quick succession, the derisive reviews, the friends' embarrassment, the failing career, the dwindling income, the repossessed house, the divorce . . . Working doggedly on through crises like these, however, has always got me there in the end. Leaving the desk for a while can help. Talking the problem through can help me recall what I was trying to achieve before I got stuck. Going for a long walk almost always gets me thinking about my manuscript in a slightly new way. And if all else fails, there's prayer. St Francis de Sales, the patron saint of writers, has often helped me out in a crisis. If you want to spread your net more widely, you could try appealing to Calliope, the muse of epic poetry, too." — Sarah WatersTip 13: "The writing life is essentially one of solitary confinement – if you can't deal with this you needn't apply." — Will SelfTip 14: "Be your own editor/critic. Sympathetic but merciless!" — Joyce Carol OatesTip 15: "The reader is a friend, not an adversary, not a spectator." — Jonathan FranzenTip 16: "Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose. If you have the knack of playing with exclaimers the way Tom Wolfe does, you can throw them in by the handful." — Elmore LeonardTip 17: "Remember: when people tell you something's wrong or doesn't work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong." — Neil GaimanTip 18: "You know that sickening feeling of inadequacy and over-exposure you feel when you look upon your own empurpled prose? Relax into the awareness that this ghastly sensation will never, ever leave you, no matter how successful and publicly lauded you become. It is intrinsic to the real business of writing and should be cherished." — Will SelfTip 19: "The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you're allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it's definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I'm not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter." — Neil GaimanTip 20: "The nearest I have to a rule is a Post-it on the wall in front of my desk saying ‘Faire et se taire’ (Flaubert), which I translate for myself as ‘Shut up and get on with it.’" — Helen Simpson

Heyo everyone! I'm paintbrushguitar. You may have seen my lyrics/poetry on the Lyrics and Poetry Forum. I've been writing for a long time and wanted to write some helpful tips I use to help you guys. Enjoy! *These aren't in any order of importance*

Carry a Journal Everywhere You Go Carrying a journal or notepad or stickynotes helps you be able to jot down any one-liners or themes you may want to capture. If you hear something you think would sound good write it down.

So you have posted a poem, song or short story and want some feedback but aren’t getting any comments. We have all be there and it can be frustrating, I know. Although there is no way to guarantee you will get feedback I have found that the following 10 tips go a long way to help solve that problem.

Give Feedback to others. If you want feedback you should expect to give feedback. I have read someplace that you should comment on three to five other posts for every poem/song, etc. you post.

Have you ever written a poem, only to be told that the rhymes sound "forced," but didn't know exactly what that meant? It can be confusing, because a "forced rhyme" may be any one of a number of different things. All of them, however, can make a poem less enjoyable to read. So, to improve your poetry as much as possible, you'll want to learn how to avoid each of the various types of forced rhymes.

Tip1: "My first rule was given to me by TH White, author of The Sword in the Stone and other Arthurian fantasies and was: Read. Read everything you can lay hands on. I always advise people who want to write a fantasy or science fiction or romance to stop reading everything in those genres and start reading everything else from Bunyan to Byatt." — Michael MoorcockTip 2: "Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most...

To be a great poet you can spend years practicing. What follows will jumpstart your poetry, giving it a dose of electroshock, catapulting it from average (or even terrible) to good. It's hard work, but it's worth it to have your name compared to other great poets. I have five tips to lay the groundwork for writing poetry readers will enjoy more than hate (or worse, be bored with). Tip #1: Use concrete language; Tip #2: Incorporate poetry devices; Tip #3: Understand poetry's different forms; Tip...